This invention relates to the containment of aerofoil blades and in particular to the containment of gas turbine engine rotor aerofoil blades.
Gas turbine engines typically include large numbers of aerofoil blades that are mounted for rotation within the engine. Normally such aerofoil blades are extremely reliable and present no problems during normal engine operation. However in the unlikely event of one of the blades becoming detached from its mounting, measures must be taken to ensure that the detached blade causes as little damage as possible to the structures surrounding the engine.
One way of limiting such damage is to manufacture the casing that normally surrounds the blades so that it is sufficiently robust to contain a detached blade. Unfortunately this results in a casing that is very thick, and therefore undesirably heavy.